Busy Busy Time

I would imagine that as you read this, you have noticed that I have not made any posts in a very long time. I need for that to change but in the mean time, my free time in SL is restricted. I have very little to post about seeing as all I do now is DJ. And while I do love to DJ, the events all seem to be the same.

On Sundays, I have a free night. But I often try to get over to Dolls of Death to support my lovely friend starie. She hosts there and the DJ there is a good one. Also, there is my friend Oui who is SL married to my friend Ken. She's a dancer there and I love to flirt with her.

On Monday nights, I DJ at Rosewould Plantation. The event starts at 5pm SLT and it's always a come-as-you-are event. Most of the times, only a handful of people show up. But there are those rare times when we get a very good crowd. I think normally my hostess is Candy but lately there have been standby people filling in. So basically, I need to be online by 4pm SLT and stay there until my set is finished at 7pm. But I usually stick around for a bit just in case the take-over DJ needs a hand.

Tuesday nights are a night off for me. Unfortunately I seem to spend most of that time in 1st life taking care of things/chores that need doing. But I do manage to get online for an hour or so in the ev

ening. I am asked to fill-in DJ at these times but I rarely do. I think I've only fill-in DJ'd a handful of times. I realize I'm going to fill-in more often but it seems like that's all I do anymore. One quick point here; I am asked to fill-in DJ all of the time, every day, but on nights that I work, I don't even bother to consider it as I'm DJing at those times.

Wednesday nights are "hump day" nights at Rosewould Plantation. Usually, there are more attendees there on Wednesday nights than on Monday nights. Again, this event is come-as-you-are and between 5pm and 7pm SLT. Again, I have to be online at 4pm just to set up a playlist. And again, I spend a bit of time there afterwards dancing and joking around.

Thursday nights are Ohana Rock Club nights. These events are come-as-you-are and take place at a rock club that is England based but runs 24/7. Their events are 3 hours long. So basically, I'm online for these for 4.5 hours at a time. That's a very long time to be in front of the computer!! But they are a very high traffic place and generally, I make good tips there. I start at 3pm SLT and go until 6pm. This means I have to be online at 2pm to setup a playlist. And recently, they have sent out a group notice asking that DJs and hosts stay for a while afterwards in case the relief host and DJ want to refer to us. So yeah, that's about 4.5 hours.

Then on Friday nights, I play at House of the Rising Sun. It's owned and operated by Alobar and sami. Alo is a very long time friend of mine from years ago, and I like the way he thinks an environment such as Rising Sun and the surrounding castle, RLV area and shops should be run. That's why I stay there. However recently he lost some of his internet radio DJ due to lack of traffic. It's true, I'm lucky to score L$300 there in tips and after I tip out it's more like clearing L$100. But I really like the place and the people there are quality and hard to find. I'm talking the owners, their managers, DJs, hosts, patrons and guests. Everything about the place is just plain fun and enjoyable. Well.... except for the blues. At least he allows for classic rock too because one can nearly overdose on blues, I'm here to tell ya.

Saturdays I spend the morning time on my L$60 Linden Weekend shopping spree. Sometimes it takes me hours go get through it but sometimes I find a good deal too. This last one was a ballgown that was unique for SL and simply gorgeous. And it was only L$60! I bought one for cat and I showed a friend's alt the dress too and I think she picked up a copy. I can't wait to see it on one of them. Then Saturday night is free if I can manage to get online. Again, I'm asked to fill-in DJ but there's no way I can be online for 4.5 hours so I have to turn them down. One Saturday morning I was asked to fill in and I agreed only to get pressure from 1st life because I had things to do later that afternoon and could not leave the computer. Yeah, 4.5 hours is a huge chunk out of a Saturday afternoon! I sure did have fun though, but it's not worth the 1st life grief I get.

In the end, the amount of tips I am paid just barely covers my weekly tier expense. One would think that working for 3 of the most popular clubs in SL would easily pay the bills and then some, but that's not the case. The main thing to realize is that while you might have made L$800 in tips, you end up tipping that same place back. Dolls of Death for example employs 3 dancers, a hostess and a DJ. Well, I normally tip the dancers L$50 and the hostess L$50 and the DJ L$100, mainly because DJs have extra expenses. So that's L$300, but keep in mind that during a 2 hour event, I do that twice. So I might make L$800 on Thursday night but I end up with only L$200 after tips. The solution? Don't go to places where people work for tips. But that kind of defeats the purpose of my logging onto SL in the first place. I enjoy those places. I suppose I could simply refrain from tipping but I have a feeling that's what a lot of people are thinking and that's why I'm not raking in thousands in tips like they used to in the old days.

Either way, I'm not making enough money for the time I have to spend online in SL. What I need to do eventually is to find an external source for money to cover my modest SL expenses. That way I will have more time for this blog and for other exciting things to check out in SL. Don't get me wrong, I do love to DJ, but doing it for the money is a mistake. It must be done for the enjoyment of throwing a party and celebrating life, not to try and cover expenses.

By the way, I have met some wonderful people here in SL of late as a direct result of my DJing. Some from Rising Sun have moved over to Ohana Rock Club with me and also someone from Rosewould Plantation. Ohana does pay well, even if it is the most time consuming and therefore the most demanding. They have some wonderful people working there and running the place. They screen their people before hiring them so there are no "divas" there. Just hard working, fun loving people. It's a great place to visit if you ever get a chance and they have events going on ALL the time, so you don't have to worry about when to show up. Just show up.

Busy Nights

The title of this post is an understatement. I never dreamed I'd be this busy in Second Life. Last night for example I attended a training session at Ohana Rock Club. They have accepted my application for DJ at their very busy place. I'm hoping the tips will be very good there. But the sets are three hours long so I need to make some adjustments in my 1st life. I sure hope this works out. I was impressed by how professional they are but they would have to be to account for their success. I'm looking forward to my first event there tomorrow during the daytime.

So that went quite well. The senior DJ and I practiced handing the music stream back and forth. They own their own stream so I don't have to worry about mine acting up or anything. Easy. Then it was off to setup a playlist for my event at RoseWould Plantation. That was two very fun hours! There were a decent number of people there. The tips were not bad and the conversations were fun. Once DJ Whiskey took over the music, I had to take off and I was just a bit late for Kenmax and Oui's wedding.

KenMax Waiting on Oui

But when I teleported home, Ken was waiting there for me and he was all set to go. I had to put on a tuxedo and boutonniere. Then we headed to the wedding ceremony place. I was the officiant so I went up first. There was a good crowd and it was wonderful to see a bunch of the Dolls of Death crowd, which is where Oui works, including Lydia. The ceremony went pretty well. We only had one issue with the reciting of the wedding ring vows, but that was because the rings came with their own chat. We didn't cover that in the rehearsal the night before. But no biggie. Ken recovered quickly and we made it through the ceremony perfectly after that. It was a very nice looking ceremony too. Lots of pictures were taken. Unfortunately, I was too busy to take any of my own so all I have to post up here is the one that KenMax took of us. I may get some pictures later from the photographer and if I do, I will be sure to post them here. Oui looked lovely. I could tell, she was very very happy. And that's what it's all about!

Then after that, we went to the reception on their parcel. It was very nice and I played some music requests there. That went on for at least an hour or so. It ended up being a very long night, but lots of fun. That was the second time I have married a couple. The first time was Darren and Zuri and I'm pretty sure that's one of my earliest blog entries. I do love going to weddings. Congratulations Ken and Oui!

So needless to say, I have been hanging out at the Ohana Rock Club as much as possible lately. They seem to be some fun people and they really know their stuff. They have a web site at http://www.ohanarockclub.com/ that you can visit and even listen to the music stream there. That is a handy feature of owning one music stream for an entire dance club. The place is able to crash my computer sometimes but other times it seems fine. And even if I do crash, when I return, the system becomes stable. I doubt it has much of anything to do with the location itself. It's something on my end and I continue to work to resolve it. But if my SL viewer crashes, my computer will still continue to stream music. All I really need to do in that case is log back on to my last location.

Time To Get Back To Some Fun

Unfortunately, I have been experiencing some health problems of late. But they are all taken care of now thanks to very highly paid doctors and hospital staff. Yes, I must be in the wrong 1st life business. But the point is, I have been forced to focus on RL instead of SL for a couple of months now. It's time to get back to SL for some fun.

Orgy night at RoseWould

First of all, I wish to thank everyone who was concerned for my well-being while I was away. I can't thank you all enough for your caring and concerns. Thank you cat and Neva for maintaining our land so that when I did finally make it back, I had a home to come back to. Thank you to my families at House of the Rising Sun and RoseWould Plantation and Dolls of Death for the welcomes back and well wishes. While in the hospital, very ill and nearly unable to write, I was able to logon to SL and chat with some people. First one I thought of was Alobar. He owns House of the Rising Sun and just happened to be online. So I sent him and Instant Message (IM) to let him know I was okay. Talk about a strange feeling! I became tired simply typing! So I had to cut it short and logoff and climb back in the bed. The whole ordeal was unlike anything I'd ever experienced and never hope to again.

Welcome back Otto at Rising Sun

At this same time, Len from RoseWould was having medical issues too. It just goes to prove that taking care of yourself is very important and that online friends can be just as close if not closer than face-to-face friends.

That being said, my welcomes back were awesome! I DJ'd for a bit at both places and even had a welcome back party at Rising sun. And while a few weeks later I ended up back at the hospital for a 4 day stay, I was having fun. Once the doctors figured out what was wrong with me, they treated me and I feel tons better. No more getting tired when I DJ'd or stayed online a long time. I even feel refreshed and ready to run around after a long set. So it's back to fun in SL again!

Keeping In Touch

Communications in Second Life are quite varied and easy. You can IM (Instant Message or type). You can voice chat or talk over the microphone. You can talk over skype or the phone. You can send offline messages back and forth too. But sometimes things happen when you least expect. You can lose internet temporarily and to plan for that, you can give certain people  you trust (non-stalker types) your cell phone number for texting. For example, I lost electrical power one time before a DJ event at Dolls of Death. I was able to use my smart phone to log onto SL and send an instant message to Cinder, owner of the club, to let him know I would be late or not be there at all. That type of backup communication can come in very handy.

I have a few people whom I trust with my home phone number and they trust me with theirs. If something were to happen where I could not be online for a while, I would be able to contact them and keep them posted as to what is going on. But no amount of planning prepared me for what happened to me the month of July.

On July 3, I fell very ill. So ill that I do not remember events and I was pretty much out of my mind. It was initially pneumonia but was later complicated with a breakdown of my immune system. I was in a 3 day coma and hospitalized for a month. During that time, I would have been unable to contact my SL family and friends. What happened was that my close and trusted SL friends/family were phoning my RL wife jojo. Fortunately, she knew most of them by their SL names and she was able to fill them in on what was happening to me. Unfortunately, the cell phone they were using to call on was about to be shut off due to non-payment of the service bill. My wife did not know how to pay it. She brought me the phone later on when I was off the breathing tube and my hands were no longer tied, along with a credit card, but I always paid it online. The problem was, I did not have a computer in intensive care and jojo did not know my username/password for my account. Hell, I could not even remember that information in my current state. So communication broke down for a while. So even with my SL family/friends knowing my cell and home phone information, communication was still a problem.

One of my SL friends just happened to live within 10 minutes of the hospital I was at so she would come out just about every night I was out of ICU and visited for several hours. We were able to do lots of catching up however she was not in the same circle of friends as my SL friends/family so she was unable to relay information to them about me. Still, it was wonderful having her there. It was also fortuitous that we had been RL friends since high school. We had lots to talk about and free movies to watch which were provided by the hospital.

Eventually, I was let out of ICU and into some other care unit. I borrowed my mother-in-law's laptop and was able to pay on my phone account which reactivated it. That didn't matter much though due to the fact that cell service there was very weak. Still, I was able to text most of my friends. My MIL's computer allowed me to logon to SL but it was very slow and even more difficult to type on. So logging onto SL was a huge chore. Needless to say, I did not do it very often.

Communication resumed almost in full by the time I was released from the hospital nearly a month later. I created a notecard which I could hand out that explained my long absence and while it seemed impersonal, it prevented me from having to explain to each and every one of my over 200 friends why I was away for so long. And while it is very highly unlikely that any of you will have to vanish from SL for that long, it sure is nice to have some sort of solid backup communication plan in place, just in case.

We are all real people here. We are a society. We deserve to know what happens to our dear friends. Make sure you have some sort of backup communication plan in place. Make sure your RL family members know about your close friends in SL and know how to handle the bills if you are ever incapacitated. And finally, to my dear friends from the past who have simply vanished without a word; I deserve to know. It hurts when you leave without a trace. The very least you can do is let the rest of us know you are leaving and not returning. We deserve to know. And thank you El for at least popping in once in a while to say hi. You have no idea how much that means to us.

Swingers

Oh yes, you are correct. This is yet another sex-related post about SL. This time it's about swinging. To me, swinging is like where you can have multiple sex partners. You can have a significant other such as a submissive or partner or wife in SL (or all of the above), yet you can go out and "play" with others.  But to many, swinging is when you and your partner go out and wife-swap. For example, I log into SL and know that my sub cat cannot be online, yet I want to play. I can go to hang outs or sex places and have some virtual sex if I want to. But if we do end up together online at the same time, we can also go out and play with other couples, and other people in general, such as an orgy. But I'm finding out that my definition of "swinging" is not the same concept as others have.

If you look at Wikipedia, the definition for swinging is something like, "non-monogamous behavior, in which singles or partners in a committed relationship engage in sexual activities with others as a recreational or social activity". It goes on to elaborate but basically, that definition takes all the excitement out of the concept. It's fun! It's also very nice to know that there is such a huge and solid trust between yourself and your partner that you can behave like this and not have to worry about jealousy or any other bad feelings.

Basically, when I cannot be online, I want to make sure that my committed partner can still have some fun. And the same goes for me. If I am out exploring or partying somewhere and I'm approached and propositioned, I don't want to have to feel like I have to turn anyone down unless I'm not in the mood. It only makes sense. And when we are both online together, it's nice to be able to participate in a group orgy or something similar without having to worry about hurting feelings. After all, it's not like cat and I would be online at the same time yet take off in two different directions to play with other people. We would be together or at least in the same room if that were our desire. I'm sure there are other couples who take off without each other and find their excitement with strangers, but to me that just sounds like a lack of interest in the couple's relationship, not a method of bringing each other closer together through shared experiences.

A quick note here about BDSM or D/s lifestyle. The D/s lifestyle dictates that the submissive is to serve the dominant. That limit of servitude is to be determined by the couple when they reach that point of D/s lifestyle. But it is not uncommon for a sub to be instructed to serve her master along with another sex partner either familiar or a stranger. It's just the way that lifestyle is. Is that swinging? Yeah, it could fit the definition, partially.

But as you can imagine, there is going to be a certain amount of unasked for insecurity, jealousy, envy, mistrust and probably feelings of rejection. Many people simply cannot handle this. But others go on their merry way, enjoying chance encounters and even attending parties such as orgies and swapping parties. But if you are really curious and want to learn more about this type of lifestyle, then a swinger's group discussion is the way to go.

My friend Lainey holds a weekly discussion at RoseWould Plantation on Tuesday nights for an hour. During that hour, questions are asked and answered, experiences shared and examples given. It's a great way to learn about the swinger's lifestyle. The entire region of RoseWould is based on the lifestyle. The group of people as a whole are very friendly and open. It's so refreshing compared to many places I have been a member of. After your first visit there, you will feel right at home. Unfortunately, it costs L$500 to join the group, but at least you can score a 6-day free pass to see if the lifestyle is something you would care to pursue or not.

In the end, the swinger's lifestyle is certainly worth a look. If you have a partner, then you will most certainly want to discuss it with them first. It is not for everyone. But if you are looking for something different and maybe more excitement, then this swinger's environment might be just the ticket. And if you are single, I'm sure you are still welcome there. I'm sure lots of couples would welcome the opportunity for a 3-way encounter or two.

On a side note; I have been trying to free up my time in SL by not working as a DJ so much. So I resigned from two of my DJing event nights. But this place, RoseWould, was in need of a DJ one night, a Wednesday night, so I filled in. It was fun! Low lag, no do-not-play list, lots and lots of tips and like I said, a lot of open minded and naughty people. Now they are wanting me to be regular there and while it goes against my needing some more free time in SL, it's all about the fun and I really do have fun there so, we'll see. I like the place so we'll give DJing events a shot for now.

"You Say Slut As If It Were A Bad Thing"

One thing is for sure about Second Life, you can touch someones heart, funny bone, mind, a nerve, even soul, but you cannot touch their body. That's right! There is no real physical contact. No diseases. No accidental pregnancy. That concept alone, really opens up some doors for sexual experimentation.

"But wait!" you say, "If you cannot be physically touched, how can you feel sex?" Good question! I'm sure there are many analysts out there with theories, but basically it comes down to emotions and feelings. Trust me, you can feel someone's romantic/sexual advances in SL. Some people do not, but most do. That being said, let's find out what sort of doors this may open for many users.

It never ceases to amaze me, the popularity of these so called "free sex" places. Anytime I feel like meeting new people, I don't go to the Welcome Centers for newbies, I go straight for the free sex places. Just stand around there for a while and someone is sure to contact you. There might also be a "scene" going on where a couple (or more) are having their sex out in public. It's like reading a steamy X rated book but with moving illustrations.

The people that frequent these places are usually not friends. They have just met and are strangers to each other and living a "one night stand". The male is probably thinking of himself as a stud, and the female a slut. This type of sexual encounter is very exciting for most people. The woman likes being treated like a slut and the man feels excited that she wants him. It's fun for everyone. So this woman gets a chance to let go of her inhibitions. She can let go of all of society's rules and just enjoy herself. The man can explore his more aggressive (or submissive) side without worrying about hurting the woman or being arrested or getting a strange, sexy woman pregnant.

The males are looking for a slutty woman to "play" with. The sluttier, the better. They want a woman who wants their anatomy and is willing to try anything at least once. The majority of men I observe in SL at the free sex places, walk around with erections sticking out of the fly in their pants. No shirts, sometimes no shoes, but almost always pants. This doesn't really  make much sense to me, but I'm no analyst. I just observe. Personally, I prefer no pants and flaccid until an erection is required. And because SL does not provide anatomically correct avatars, the male penis has to be purchased. Due to this fact, the skin color of the male prim needs to be matched up to the avatar's skin. This is usually accomplished via the use of a HUD (Heads Up Display) attached to your viewer while wearing your male prim. But many guys do not even bother to do this, so you see a lot of light colored penis' as you walk through a free sex place. Honestly, I don't see how those guys land girls to play with, but somehow they do.

The females on the other hand, want to appear as slutty as possible. They can accomplish this through aggressiveness or by being submissive. They can appear helplessly bound to a device with their body ripe for some horny male's use. Or they can be eager to have sex with a male by flirting with him or even capturing the submissive ones. The women tend to appear in these free sex places as nearly naked in some sort of skimpy lingerie or straps or a corset or bikini or nothing at all. She can experiment and do things she would not do in her 1st life. And make no mistake about it, there are bi-sexual practices that the woman would normally never do. And same thing for the men. Anything goes at one of these places. You simply cannot do this often in real life.

So people get to let out their inner selves without much restriction. Women exploring their inner slut. Men letting their aggressiveness run wild. It's amazing some of the things you will witness. I will probably post some of these experiences in the future sometime, but why not see for yourself? Go to SecondLife.com.

No More Topless Tuesdays?

Last night was probably my very last Topless Tuesday at House of the Rising Sun. It was a tough choice for me to make but after putting it off for a week, I finally made my choice and went through with it. Alobar, the owner, was not happy but very understanding. I will still be DJing the Nakie Friday night events but no more Tuesdays at this time. The reasons? Basically come down to free-time management.

For many years, I covered my virtual land rent expenses (tier payments) with money I would bring into Second Life (SL) from my bank account. The amounts are not much really. 1000 Linden dollars equated to about $4 US dollars. But after going over my expenses with a CPA recently, it was proven that my "hobby" of living my free time in SL was pretty pricey. So I have resolved to stop bringing money into SL and instead, earn it inworld and keep it there. I tried selling stuff I create. Selling stuff for other creators (affiliate program). Having a nightclub and shopping mall. But none of that worked out. The best source of income I could find in SL for me was DJing events at well known establishments such as Dolls of Death and House of the Rising Sun. This has been working fine for about six months so far. If I were to spend all of my time DJing or working in SL, then I would be in very good shape. But that's not what I come to SL for.

I come to SL to hang out and socialize with people, invent and create things, alter other things to see what will happen, listen to music, try things I cannot in 1st life, play games with people from all over the world and much more. While I do like to DJ and entertain, I'm happier having free time to myself. So I limit my "work" to three nights per week. Each event being two hours and one hour prior to that to setup a music playlist, equates to nine hours per week which do not belong to me in SL. I feel that's a reasonable amount. Anymore and it would be too much work and would not be worth even hanging out in SL. Any less and I would not be earning any tier money in SL. So when an opportunity presents itself to triple what I make in one two hour event in SL, then I need to take it seriously. I could quite possibly cut my DJing down to two nights per week freeing up at least three hours of more time to spend with my friends or work on my creations.

It would appear that a place which I thought was off limits to me, now is available. There will be no mention of this place in my blog until they tell me I actually do have the "job". You see, I'm on a three week trial period with them. It doesn't make any sense to me, but they have been at this type of work/entertainment for years so they must have been burned in the past by other DJs? I can only speculate. This place was introduced to me a while back by a very close friend who is currently an ex friend. We were seriously close back then and this was her "stomping-ground". So when we split up in a not-so-congenial way, I left the group and stayed away from the place. Well, my ex has since returned; showing up at one of my events at Dolls of Death with her man whom she's been with for over a year. So things are good for her and she's happy and she's been wondering how I have been doing. It has been delightful hearing about her experiences over the past couple of years and how happy she is. But this opens up a few of her current "haunts" to me, more specifically this swinger's place that needs DJs.

So last night I announced that it was my last Topless Tuesday night at Rising Sun. It was more difficult than I thought it would be because I genuinely enjoy it there and have known Alobar for fours years. Starie (my hostess at both Rising Sun and Dolls of Death) took it a bit harder than I thought she would but I have a feeling that this new place will be hiring her too.

The new place has lots of rules but one thing they do not have is a do-not-play list. This is going to be very nice. Being able to play what I want to is very liberating. DoD had a do-not-play list that included Nickleback. As you can imagine, I had to turn down a lot of people's requests. But that place is well worth it because the people there are wonderful, despite what images the name may conjure up, and they tipped quite well. House of the Rising Sun (HRS) has no real do-not-play list but they are a blues club so it's best to stick to that style of music. That's what most of their customers come there for, and they are a wonderful group of people too. A very popular place with a huge following meaning it was a tough decision to quit my Tuesday night slot there. The lack of a do-not-play list and the evidence of a great deal of generous tips makes this new place very attractive. We'll see if I can adhere to all their rules and if I can, and it turns out being as much fun as I anticipate, then this will be my new third event per week venue.

Motley Crue and Whisper Too

There are numerous live tributes to famous musicians throughout SL. I've heard of Ted Nugent, Rolling Stones, Heart, just to name a few. Basically, you go to one of these performances and the avatars are named after the real artists and take on their appearances. They play the instruments, drums, bass, guitar, etc., and perform on a stage to a live recording of the group themselves. These events are quite popular and draw a lot of people. They typically last one to two hours. My SL sister Whisper, invited me to come to one of these events.

My sis Whisper on the right

I was busy working on something that was not super important when she sent me the invite. It was for Motley Crue. I finished up what I was doing first, then asked her for a teleport. She invited me to a couple's dance and that's what we did. I like Motley Crue a lot so it was nice to listen to their live recording. But the Crue is not Whisper's style. I imagine her tastes are more along the lines of jazz or even country. She later confirmed my speculations but not before she told me she had to quit dancing and head up to the stage.

During the performance of Girls, Girls, Girls, most of the women in the audience jumped up on the stage to dance with Motley Crue. That was a nice touch. About that time, cat logged on and I invited her over. After she rezzed, she started dancing. By about that time, Girls, Girls, Girls was finished and Whisper came back so she and cat could dance for a bit. I had to leave for some quick business then a quick cuddle with cat and off to RL dinner for me. It seems it's getting tougher and tougher to find some time to set aside for SL lately, but I'm working on correcting that.

One of the things I spend much of my time doing in SL is DJing. Now, I really like to DJ but it's the income from that which I use to pay my expenses in SL, which are mostly tier. Because I spend 3 nights per 7 night week DJing in SL, I need to find a way to earn more tips in less time. As it stands, on a night that I DJ, I logon one hour early to setup a playlist. The events are two hours each so that's a total of three hours per night or nine hours per week. So at this point, I'm looking for a place which has patrons who all tip. If everyone there would tip, then I would be in great shape. Yes, I perfectly understand the reality of economics that restricts the amount of disposable income, but there are places out there where people tip their entertainers. I need to find me just one more of those places. If I can manage my time more effectively in SL, then I can spend more free time there. The only other alternative is to stop DJing altogether and keep bringing in my 1st life earnings, which is what I did for the first 3 years of my SL time. But the potential to earn an "income" in SL is there and to ignore that is unwise. People make money in SL. They take that money and spend it on the virtual economy. That's what makes SL possible. I would rather be a part of that economy and earn my way there than bring in outside money. That's just how I feel about it. If it becomes too difficult to pull that off then I'll probably go back to bringing money into SL and having all 7 nights of my week free to do as I please. As it stands I have two great places to DJ. One more should take care of all my financial needs.

Couples Dance Controllers

Animations and scripts are what make things happen in Second Life. With animations and scripts working together you can sit on chairs or in cars. You can swim or even eat and have sex. You can dance alone or with a partner. It's that dancing with a partner that we want to address here for a few very good reasons.

Couples dancing has to be synchronized. In order for two avatars to share an animation there must be some sort of controller. In beds and other animation devices where more than one avatar interacts with another, the controller is usually embedded in the furniture. In the case of a couples dance controller, they are normally set out in the open where people can recognize it and click on it to summon poses that the couple can "sit" upon to activate the animations. In this case, dances. This may sound pretty simple and straight forward but it's not. It can be, but it's not. Let me illustrate.

Rainbow colored Intan controller, top center

The Intan brand of couples dance controller is universally recognized. They come in the form of a slowly rotating, rainbow colored set of balls, or often times a heart shape. This makes sense. Most people will look around the club they are in for something like this to activate if they want to dance with someone. Intan also makes single dance controllers. So if you are by yourself, you can click on the blue controller if you are wanting male dances and the pink controller if you want the female dances. Intan also has remote controllers. These look like a rainbow colored ball on the top of a small post, plus two little people hanging onto the post. One is blue and the other pink. For example, if you want to dance a single female dance, you click on the pink person hanging onto the post. If you want to dance with someone, you click on the rainbow colored ball. It's pretty straight forward.

You will see a menu pop up in your viewer's window with control options for the dance. It will first ask if it may animate your avatar. This is important because these controllers can be clicked on accidentally and you may already be animated with a dance in your animation overrider (AO. Subject for another post), which would interfere with your current animation. You need that option to be able to say No. There are also a list of dances to choose from by name and a Tools button to use to adjust your dance or resynchronize the dance. Often times, due to lag or your partner's computer running slower or faster than yours, you may need to resync your dance. At clubs that have lots of dances, you can select couples dances that fit the mood of the music. There are waltzes, slow dances, fast dances, goofy dances (numerous ones of those), salsas, etc. Just about everything you can think of.

Brand X dance controller in the disco ball

The only problem I have with the Intan system is that you really need to wear a HUD to help you control the dances. The HUD has a Resync button and if  you try to access the resync feature using the default control menu without the HUD, you could get lost trying to find it under the Tools menu, especially if the club has lots of dances. To stop dancing, all you have to do is press the Stand Up button which appears in your viewer once you sit on a dance ball.

That is all well and good. But there is at least a couple of other dance controllers available out there and one of them that has appeared in the past year or so has be scowling. I will not call it by name here because it is not the goal of this blog to say anything bad about anyone or any product (unless it's griefers). Please allow me to explain first. I would not mind the new dance system at all except for the fact that it's quite popular. This is discouraging because I don't like it for a number of reasons. First of all, it can take any shape or form. You cannot find it. It's annoying to search for a couples dance controller and have to ask the host in public chat where to find it. I've seen it in mirrored disco balls and in dance floors. Sure, putting the controller in the dance floor seems to make sense. After all, my first club had a crude dance controller in the dance floor and I never remember anyone asking me "how do I dance here?". But that was five years ago. Today, people are looking for dance controllers. They are not thinking it's in the dance floor. And a disco ball? Well, it's not real obvious. Perhaps if it had text hovering over it? That might help. But nobody can disagree that if there is an Intan controller in the club, people will find it and know what it is.

Another issue I have with the Brand X controller is that when you click on it, you get a pop down message. Now if you are using the default SL viewer with the default settings, you will not see this pop down message. It's not real obvious in those viewers. That causes more problems that you can imagine. The message is asking if you want to dance single or couples. If you see the message then you can choose singles or couples but it will also ask to animate you. This part is bad because another pop down menu will present itself and cover that most important question. It's caused a great deal of confusion as you can imagine. So lots of hosts and club owners have taken to telling the patrons to relog onto SL to hopefully fix the problem. And I have run into that issue in the past. I had to relog just to get the dance controller to work for me. I have never had that issue with the Intan. So why are club owners using this less-than-desirable controller? But wait, there's more.

Click the deck to dance

Once you choose to dance a couples dance, it informs you that dance balls to sit on are on their way to you. If you are male you sit on the blue ball and your partner on the pink ball. It makes sense. The problem is that the balls will present themselves (rez) to your far left and forward. Here's the problem with that. Say you are on a crowded dance floor with your woman and you find a small spot to dance with her that's unoccupied. So you ask for and find what to click on to dance and when you do, it rezzes the dance balls inside of another couple next to you. Once you "sit" on those dance balls, you cannot move except for the dance animations. You will be dancing inside of your neighbors. Most women don't care for that. The Intan does not do that. It rezzes the dance balls right where you are standing. So why are club owners using this less-than-desirable Brand X controller? But wait, there's more.

Actually, this is not so bad really. The Intan controller works best if you use their HUD. The HUD is free but they are not always easy to find and they are NOT included inside the dance controller menu. This other system does have their dance HUD inside their menu and it's offered as an option. This is handy because in order for me to use an Intan dance controller HUD, I have to search my extensive inventory. I have taken to including it in a file folder which I can quickly look up called Otto. I have lots of default items in there such as hair and skin, etc., and my Intan HUD is right there. But the other controller has the HUD right in their menu. Very handy except for the fact that it attaches itself to your upper right screen position as a default location. The Intan does this too but because I keep using the same Intan HUD, I have edited it to attach itself more to the center of my viewer screen. This other controller HUD removes a HUD I like to keep as always on and as default. And I did try once to edit and move this Brand X controller HUD over to the center of my viewer, but then it malfunctioned. It's as if it has to occupy the upper right corner of your viewer, removing any other HUD that was in that location. So annoying. So why are club owners using this less-than-desirable and user unfriendly controller?

I can only speculate. First of all, Intan dance controllers are very difficult to load with dances. There is a very real possibility that you can lose your non-copy dance animations as you are trying to install them into the Intan. I know, this has happened to me. There is even a company out there that pre-loads Intans with dances so you can purchase them fully loaded without having to load them yourself. They do a lot of business. So it's possible that this Brand X dance controller is easy for the club owner to use and load. But still, once you get used to loading the Intan like I have, it's not bad at all.

Another reason could be cost. It might be much less expensive purchasing the Brand X controller, I don't know. I think I paid around L$2000 for my Intan? Probably less than that for the couples controller. Then I purchased the two singles controllers later, along with a "Dance Anywhere" remote controller which is copy-able. So I might have up to L$3000 into my Intan system? If the Brand X controller is less than that then that might explain why more club owners are using it.

Finally, it could be that because the Brand X dance controller is new, it's better. That's not necessarily true. With all of the patrons having trouble with the Brand X controller, it's obvious that it is not better than anything else. If it's not instinctive to use, then it's not practical, especially when there is at least one other controller out there that is.

Space: The Final Frontier

Yes, there is space in Second Life. SL is what you make it, so I had to make "space". Sure, sims have boundaries. They are only 256x256 meters square in ground area and only allow an altitude of up to 4000 meters, but you can put "space" in that 4000 meters somewhere, and that's exactly what I did.

Piloting the star ship

I won't mention the creator of the "universe" I purchased and rezzed way up high on my parcel, because it is a bit over priced, but I will say he/she did a great job with it. It comes in various huge sizes and you can control the textures on it making it look like the outer fringes of a galaxy or nova or cluster of stars, etc. It's basically a mega-prim (over 64 meters in size), hollowed out and oval. Use the included control panel to chose from various star fields and you have space. It just costs too much for what you get. The value is not there. It's very possible this item was priced back when a shirt cost L$300 though. Not the creator's fault really. It's just the way things were back then. But I bought it anyway because it was exactly what I desired. But if there is a next time, I will probably make my own easy enough.

So now I have "space". What do I put into it? Either a space station, which I have been making, or a space ship. Well, my space station is too large for the new parcel I share now with Neva and cat. It would need twice as much area as we are living on now. So I guess a space ship would be in order. This will be fun! Having a space ship to hang out on is interesting. Sure, I have hang-outs on the beach at a campfire. One at a tiki bar. There's the house of course and a cabana. A cuddle forest too. But a space ship? COOL!

Space: The Final Frontier

So I went shopping on the marketplace for space ships. There are a surprising number of different sorts of ships and space stations. I didn't really want a space station because I had already made one and didn't have much room on my current parcel for a good sized one. But they kept showing up under the search term of "space ship". So I saw some really nice space stations but had to pass them buy. They did give me ideas for my own space station project though. A great many of the space ships out there were wearable meaning that you can actually attach them to your avatar and fly them around. Many of those were set for combat. I was not thinking along the lines of an interstellar war. I just wanted a place to hang out with friends, so I kept searching.

My Crew

Most of the star ships I found were very expensive. They did much more than I was looking for including weapons and "warp" travel, meaning they could teleport to other sim/regions. I just needed something to hang out on. To my pleasant surprise, I found a small Star Trek based ship fashioned after the Deep Space 9 series called a Runabout. My first impression was that it was too small for my purposes. But it did contain a lounge where friends could hang out and even a parcel media control device for video. It had two bunks for sleeping, a cargo bay with a hover-bike, a table for "dining", even a toilet and bathroom. It had a replicator and the bridge had two seats for pilot and navigator and two work stations for other crew members and all of these were animated. This is a perfect ship for role playing. That's even more than I required so I checked on the cost in anticipation of purchasing it. Unbelievable. Obviously the creator wants to sell lots of these. The cost? L$89. I see T-shirts that cost more than that! I may have issues with the size and overall looks, but at that price it does not matter. I almost never promote a product on this blog but I'm going to change that policy right now. You can get this wonderful piece of work at Starfall Creations Runabout

If you are into role play (RP) then this is perfect for you. It's Star Trek based so you will see that the control panels are all LCARS systems. If you don't know what that means, don't worry. It's still a great place to hang out in too. I even read a review by someone stating that they used it as their virtual home. It's only 209 prims so it has less of an impact on land that many homes or skyboxes.

Neva, cat and I spent about an hour or so on it the other night. We enjoyed the sofa and if we so desired, we could have watched streaming video on the TV, but that's just not our thing. Visiting for the three of us all together at once is rare and very special to us. It's not easy getting three different time zones together all at once. And even though cat pressed every single push-able button on the ship, it did not self-destruct. She is true to her name in that curiosity may one day kill the cat as they say.

"But Master! It was blinking red!" *facepalm*

StarShip Games

One of the things I love to do in SL is play games. Chess is a fun one if you can find an opponent. Greedy Greedy is popular and you do not even need an opponent. If you have high score displays near the table, you can compete for the highest ending score. Then there are games of chance.

The last time I read the Linden Labs Terms Of Service (TOS), gambling was not allowed. Linden Labs prefers to think of them as games of skill. I still do not know how some of these game creators get around that rule but they do, somehow. Trust me, spinning a wheel for a computer generated random number is not subject to skill by any means. Still, the gambling games are there. And quite honestly, I'm thankful for them. I enjoy winning money from those places.

In the past, I have won as much as L$600 (Linden dollars), but lost as much as L$500, all at one time. I think for the most part, I am breaking even over the past 4 years. That's pretty good in my book. I am entertained for the whole time I'm gambling and recreation is invaluable. It's why most people visit SL in the first place. Just as in your 1st life, you need to know when to stop. Either lose too much and stop or win big and stop. If you win big, then the odds are you will not win again until you have gambled away your winnings. And if you lose too much, then you need to come back another day to win it back. It's as simple as that.

But what about that guy who owns the gambling/gaming place? When I win, is he in the hole? Not likely. It's much like gambling in Las Vegas. The odds are always in the house's favor. For every win I make, I know someone lost to pay for it. I know it's not the owner of the gaming place. He/she will always come out on top. So why doesn't everyone own a gaming place? They are expensive! Many of those game "machines" cost around L$1000 (about $4 US). Many of those gaming places have dozens if not hundreds of these machines. That's a huge investment! Then, you need to get people who are searching to find your gaming place. If you cannot get gamers to go to your place, they will be spending their money somewhere else. And there are hundreds of gaming places out there to compete with. But what if you could erect a gaming place for a bare minimum of money out-of-pocket.

Enter my buddies JR and Dollar. JR came up with the idea. He is investing in half with me and only getting 10% of the profits for now. Dollar owns hundreds of gaming machines. He will place them in your gaming place for 50% of the profits. So he basically rezzes these machines in  your place, and you are responsible for bringing in players. He has invested in the purchase of these games and his return on investment (ROI) is half the profits. Some weeks, the profits are quite low. Other weeks, they are impressive. Not every week is a payday, but most are.

So JR and I purchased a parcel (which happens to be right next door to cat's, Neva's and my home parcel) and erected a gaming platform. Dollar rezzed out and placed most of his gaming machines. This place has only existed for three weeks now but we are already starting to show a profit. It's called StarShip Games and it's located at http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Cabria/195/76/3901

If you like gaming, then StarShip Games is the place to be. There is always at least one big winner there, it might as well be you. I cannot get away with playing there because I have a partner, JR. But if it were only mine, I would not be against winning from my own account. But there is one game there that I can play because I do not own it, nor does Dollar. The game is free to me and I get 10% of whatever is paid to it to play. The game is called Eclipse and you can set them for various amounts required to play. Amounts from L$10 to L$1000 are possible. I mostly ever play the L$10 and L$20 games but I have a friend who plays the L$250 version and does quite well at it.

Basically, a player pays X amount to play the game. I get 10% of that and the rest is doled out over the "ladder" of the game. There are rungs or tiers on this ladder. Each rung is achieved by getting a high score. The rungs are set at 15,000, 25,000, 35,000, 45,000, 55,000 and 75,000. If you should happen to score 100,000 then you win instantly and the amount will depend on the cost of playing that game. To have your name posted on a rung of the ladder, you have to get one of the high scores. The higher the score, the longer your name will be listed on the rungs of the ladder. Once your name is listed on one of the rungs, and someone pays to play the game, you get 10% of what that player paid to play. There are 6 names associated with 6 rungs. So the owner of the land the game is rezzed on gets 10%. Each player gets 10% and the creator of the game gets the remaining 30%.

StarShip Games

I play the L$10 often so that if I do lose, it's not much. That being said, if I win, it's not much either. So let's try an example. I pay to play the game. My payment goes to the land owner, Otto Turbo (myself). That's all most players see. But I see L$9 of my received L$10 going to the creator of the game. Each name displayed on the rungs of that games ladders will increase the L$ they have listed next to their names by 10%. Just so long as nobody beats that rung's high score, the names remain there. So if the game is played 100 times before anyone beats my high score, then I have made L$100. So as you can see, if the highest score/rung I can achieve is 15,000, I will be knocked off of that rung in very little time. But the highest rung of 75,000 could take hundreds of plays before someone beats it. That highest rung will pay out a great deal by the time someone knocks you off of it.

And the best part about these particular games? They are networked. Yes, they can be played all over the entire SL grid and are updated in real time. So I do not have to wait until hundreds of people come to my land to play the one game before I get my payout. Someone thousands of sims away could be playing it right now and I'm making 10% every time they play it, so long as my name is on one of the rungs. When my score is beat, then I am forced down the rungs of the "ladder". Once I'm forced off of the bottom rung, I get paid.

But if I am going to play that Eclipse game, or another networked game like it, I need to play it on my own land so that I get at least 10% of my payment back. This is just one of the ways that gaming room people make their money via SL gambling. If I'm feeling lucky, and want to play a non-networked game, then I will go out to someone else's gaming place an win their money. If you are feeling lucky, then you need to go to StarShip Games and try to win some of mine.

Moving Day(s)

In my opinion, it is wisest to pay tier only a little bit in advance and here's why. SL is fluid. Things are in a constant state of change. People in their 1st lives move or change ISPs or careers or lifestyles and sometimes do not have time for SL anymore. Or they have time but not the means for they simply change working shift times and are never online anymore when their friends are used to them being on. Any number of things can happen. So if for some reason, a land owning avatar has to leave, and his land tier is paid up a month in advance, he has lost the value of that tier. Tiers are non-refundable. If it's a small parcel of land, it's not too big of a deal, but it's still annoying.

Neva's Garage Area at Goetz Race Track

Awhile back I had a nasty SL breakup. We had a modest parcel of land separate from my primary sim at that time and the tier was charged by the month. So when we no longer had need for the parcel, the tier was paid up three weeks in advance. Such a waste. That money was wasted.

Having learned my lesson, I always shop for parcels that have a weekly payment option. Pay tier by the week and if something should occur, the most amount of tier money you can lose is one weeks worth. In the case of our half-sim Goetz, Neva, cat and I would pay one weeks worth in advance. So on one day, I paid two weeks worth of tier. Then the following Thursday, every Thursday, I would pay one weeks worth of tier. So basically, we were paid up for half of a month and would never let the tier get below one weeks worth, just in case something happened. Well, something did happen and you can see that in a previous post: Poker Face

Dylan, Razorbladesmile and bro Nugget at the new parcel.
As you can see, Dylan knocked Razor's socks off.

As it turned out, no service was interrupted and we had a whole week to move to a new parcel. What this move cam down to was the same amount of land as Goetz, only divided in two halves. This allowed my business partner JR and I to put up a gaming area without cat and Neva having to pay for the prims we'd use. But this is the part I like best about not paying a whole month ahead on the tier. We would still have a couple of weeks left on Goetz, yet we would not even be there.

The move to the new parcel went surprisingly well. To be honest, I was not looking forward to it. I contacted two property managers that I have done business with in the past, Mirian and Roving. I contacted Roving first because I remember the 1/4 sim parcel I had under him was very smooth running and virtually lag-free. Unfortunately, he was not responding to my requests even though he was online. He was probably busy doing something away from the computer. So I contacted Miriam, who was also the property manager of the parcel we were currently leasing. She had two parcels and as it turned out, they were next door to each other on the same sim. That was fortunate! So I purchased the one parcel by paying L$49 to her (which is unusual because it's normally a L$1 charge or no charge at all) then paid the tier for the first week. I can pay up to a month ahead but like I said, two weeks ahead is more than enough.

Neva's very cool beach home after some landscaping.

The really nice thing about this parcel was that right next door was the other free parcel. I knew that Neva and cat and I were moving soon, in a day or two, so that would be ideal. I would own the first parcel with JR and the neighboring parcel with Neva and cat. The best of both worlds. Well, the next day as it turns out, that parcel was leased by someone. Damn, I had my chance. I should have just bought it then because the very next day, I was out hunting for the home parcel. I got a hold of Miriam again and she did have a parcel available, but it was not adult rated and we sort of enjoy adult rated sims because then we do not have to carefully watch what we say or do. Not that we are nasty all the time by any means!! Just some of the time.

But as luck would have it, Miriam noticed that another parcel next to the one I purchased with JR was way behind in their tier payment so she reset the parcel and sent me a landmark. It was perfect! I could have not asked for more. I immediately bought it (that odd L$49 charge again) and paid up the tier for one week at this time. It was about an hour later that cat logged on. Before that time I was at our old parcel on Goetz, removing and returning every single prim. So when cat logged on, I was ready to show her the new place. She seemed to like it okay. Her share of the tier payment increased a bit and Neva's and mine went down, so it evened everything out. I figured cat and I would go house hunting and find a new beach home or tropical island hut. Then Neva would put up something too. But it was middle of the day for me so I had to go and work in RL. I left cat there with a kiss and a new home.

Both of our new homes. Cat had this one on the left in
her inventory since before she and I met.

As I logon later that night, I am pleasantly surprised to find that cat had already setup a home. It was beautiful!! It's most certainly tropical with a small loft and a couple of first floor rooms and a large living room with adjacent bar. It was perfect! Unfortunately, she was not around so I set out our new bed and put up a chair and RLV capture stand for her so that I may sit and watch her stripped for my pleasure. Once again I had to leave but when I returned a little later that night, she and Neva were there sitting next to the pool. It was such a pleasant surprise to find them both together. Neva had not setup her house yet but cat had done some decorating in the bedroom and lots of plants and seating/furniture out by the pool. Neva had to logoff after a bit of catching up and cat and I proceeded to christen the beach house properly. Since then, Neva has put up her house too and it's beautiful! She has such great tastes.

But the overlaying theme of the whole experience has to be what I was overly worried about in the first place and that was that "home" feeling. Both women commented to me separately, and without being asked that they felt the new place was more like a home to them than Goetz was. That was a very pleasant and welcome surprise.

Happy Birthday

And what a happy birthday it was! I should point out that SL avatars are pretty lucky in that they have basically two birthdays. One of course is their real life (RL or 1st Life) birthday and the other is their rez day, the date their avatar was created.

My Birthday Card and One of the Cakes

Neva, cat and myself were in the process of moving to another parcel. A downsized parcel so that I could invest in a business venture with JR. More on that in a later post. So the sim was pretty sparse and we had lots of room. I still had not located a new place. Apparently Neva got pretty busy on that day and decorated the house and the beach area with wonderful balloons and rotating pictures of fond memories and a flattering birthday card and a giant champagne bottle pouring bubbly into a glass that was large enough for kaz to bathe in. Who could ask for more? Well, there was also a beach cottage there that she fixed up and decorated. It was beautiful and greatly appreciated.

The Beach Cottage

I never did get to party with Neva there as our RL schedules often times do not allow us to be together, but I was able to bring kaz and then later cat logged on. We hung out and kaz got into the champagne glass and cat and I hugged, even though she was having some sort of odd connection problem. She was there and that's what mattered.

It was a wonderful evening and such a nice and thoughtful gift from my daughter Neva. Thank you Neva! Now you are going to have to share with me when your birthday is.

A Glass of Naked kaz

Poker Face

I gave everyone a false alarm last week. Last week I got into a battle with the corporate behemoth, Comcast. I have been with them for years but for years I have not liked what they charge me for TV. The charge for internet and VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) phone is reasonable, but not the TV.

One day recently they sent me a notice claiming I was behind in my payment to them and that service was going to be discontinued. I was certain I was not late and I have not liked the way this corporation has done business almost from day one. So I called them up and found out that I indeed was behind. So I setup a payment with them and tried to forget about it.

But the more I thought about it, the hotter I got. There are other ISPs out there and this cable company charges way too much for TV. So I called them up and basically told them to stop charging me and to disconnect the service. I'm through with it. I made that crystal clear with them. The only snag was that the person on the other end of the phone, representing the massive corporation Comcast, could not understand what I was saying. Understandable because I could not understand that person either. The accent was so heavy and the phone equipment so poor that I could not even tell you if it was a male or female.

What does this have to do with Second Life? Well, I cannot logon to SL without internet. Knowing my disconnection date was looming the next day, I got online and told everyone how much I was going to miss them but I would be gone for a while. Maybe a couple of weeks before I found another service provider? I could not be sure. One thing I was sure about though was my past reliability. With only two exceptions, I have showed up for every scheduled event in SL to DJ for the clubs. I only play at two clubs but there are two couples that operate each of them so I composed a notecard (SL text file) that I could pass to each of them so that I would not have to keep repeating myself.

All the club owners/operators involved were very polite and understanding. I was surprised because scheduling events can be a real pain when you are short DJs. I know this from past, first hand experience. But there really was not much more I could do. I was finally fed up with Comcast so I told them "goodbye" and there was really no turning back. I was really going to miss everyone and all that was going on in my SL and even miss the DJing. But it would only be for a couple of weeks so it was not the end of the world, or was it?

I have the land tier paid up two weeks in advance on every Thursday. So on Sunday, when I realized I would not be around for at least a couple of weeks, there was over a week-and-a-half of tier/lease left on the land. Knowing full well that cat and Neva's payments would not cover the whole tier, and it would not be fair of me to expect them to cover for my payment, I figured the half-sim's tier would run out before I got back online. So it then became a matter of picking up all the stuff I had rezzed on the land that I did not want returned automatically to my inventory. There was a lot of stuff! But the copy-enabled items were okay to leave out. When an item or group of items are returned to your inventory by a land owner or manager, they usually end up in your Lost and Found folder. They will not be in order and many times you will not recognize what it is called by its name. So allowing items to be returned to that folder is undesirable. So I went around most of Sunday, up and down and all around the parcel, picking up the stuff that might be returned to that folder, and placing them where they belong in sub-folders in my inventory. Between all that and saying goodbyes to friends online, I stayed very busy that entire Sunday.

By far, the most difficult part was telling cat and Neva. They both knew I was returning but not when because I had no idea at that time. So the next day, I turned on my computer and was not surprised to find that I still had internet. So I spent as much time online with cat as I could, both of us knowing full well that we could be disconnected at any minute. Well, the minutes turned into hours and the hours into the entire day. After dinner that night, I got on the phone. After 15 minutes of navigating Comcast's frustrating menu, I was talking to a human. Yes, heavy accent but at least I could understand this guy and even hear that he was male. After explaining to him that I needed my service disconnected because I was through with paying their over-priced TV fees, he put me on hold for about 5 minutes and returned to tell me that the fees for the month have been waived to give me more time to think about ending their service. Really? He then told me that was their policy under these conditions.

Yes, I'll take free any day over expensive. The last representative I spoke with apparently tried to tell me that too but I could not understand them. So now I'm back online and have a month to find another ISP. I'm so glad I don't have to do without my SL for the next couple/few weeks! Oh, but now what? "False alarm everyone!!" Just like Lucile Ball, I have some 'splainin' to do.

I figured I had been replaced at both clubs by another DJ but as it turned out, one schedule had not been written yet and the other left open spots where my events were normally scheduled. So I was able to slide right back in and that felt great! Unfortunately, cat and Neva had started taking most of their stuff back into inventory. The plan was to move to a smaller, less expensive parcel after the tier expired where we are at. And when I returned, I was to move back in with them on the smaller parcel and save money too. But we are paid up over a week-and-a-half in advance at our current location so now we are on a nearly empty parcel for all that time. I started placing my things back out again so that we have games to play and dances to enjoy along with some select furniture filled with fun animations.

What did I learn from this whole ordeal? Well, the main thing is that with careful planning, I will make certain that I am not without an internet service. I learned that Comcast charges so much that they can afford to give you one month for free. I learned that if I am ever going to leave SL even for a long period of time, it's not always best to contact everyone about it because nothing is engraved in stone. Neva, cat and my friends are all a major part of my SL experience and I need to ensure that I stay a part of theirs too.

Absent Long-Time Friends

Mel and Kaboom and BillieJo are three fine example of long-time friends. They have all been friends of mine for quite a while now, but we generally do not hang out all the time nor even Instant Message (IM) each other that often. But none of us forgets the other and we all have a good time when we get together.

The Ferrari I made for Mel

Mel (short for Melindah) is the Real Life (RL) daughter of my SL sister, Whisper. We very rarely hang out but when we do, it's fun. I am unsure as to what brought this get-together on but I was in IMs with Whisper when Mel was invited and showed up. I had told her about a Ferrari I had made out of a shell of mesh that someone had created. I put scripts in it and was having lots of fun racing around in it. Mel liked the sounds of that and immediately wanted a pink colored version, which I made for her. She took me for a ride around one of my racetracks in it. Let's just say she could use a bit more practice with her deceleration and turns. But we had a great time racing around the oval track. 

When reconnecting with an old friend, catching up on what has been happening is not always what happens. Often times it is just doing what comes natural. Doing what made you friend that person in the first place and that's just hanging out and enjoying each other's company.

That's what happened at BilliJo's rez day party too. It's hard for me to grasp but you can actually look back in this blog and find a post about BJ's last rez day party. It's hard to believe that I have been keeping this online journal for over a year now. Anyway, BJ had a rez day party and the group invitations went out early which allowed for me to plan for it. It was several hours away so I decided to logoff and get my RL stuff done before logging back on again and attending the party. There were people there I did not recognize but there were also Kaboom, my SL brother, his daughter/my niece and of course BJ.

As it was with Mel, instead of trying to catch up on all that has happened since the last time we had all been together, we simply enjoyed each other's company. I was pleasantly surprised when BJ danced with me. I had every intention of showing up to the party and DJing for them but I saw that DJ IceWolf was there and yet the music was a radio station stream. Well, that's good by me. It saves having to be distracted by cueing up a playlist. So dancing with BJ was a real treat because her attitude is a complete turn-around from last year or so. I honestly did not think she even liked men but she was quick to point out that she was enjoying the dance and that she had on an open access collar too. It was a swift set of commands before I had her stripped bare naked. And as most can attest to, there's something very very special about dancing with a naked, submissive woman. I have every confidence that this party could have lead to much more fun and excitement, but RL kept calling me back and I finally had to succumb to its needs. But hanging out with Kaboom and BJ and them was a delight and I only wish I had had more time.

BilliJo's Rez Day Party

On the other end of the spectrum, there is nothing at all wrong with getting together with an old friend in SL and catching up on what has been going on with them. That too can be a good time. That's what Archer and PrincessRose did with cat and Neva and I a week or so ago when I posted that entry about voice chat. We all got together and talked, catching up on what has occurred since our last encounters. But to simply get together and realize that it would require hours of typing to bring the other party up to speed, when you don't have those hours to spare, means you can still hang out and enjoy each other's company, no matter how long it has been.

Mesh Clothing

Okay, now I know it's not just me. I ran across an online magazine with many articles pertaining to Second Life. One of the articles that caught my eye was the one about mesh clothing in SL. I could not have written it better myself! I have been complaining about mesh for clothing since it has come out nearly a year ago. Don't get me wrong, mesh is great for things like houses, shoes even, cars, boats, etc. But it simply does not work for hair and clothing. I know; I have many mesh items. There was one jacket that I was able to make fit right, but I had to shrink my avatar to do it. Mesh simply does not work for clothing.

Rigged mesh attaches to the avatar's "bones". It moves with the avatar, which is nice, but it just looks wrong. I cannot count the number of times I have looked at a female avatar with a gorgeous figure, only to see it covered, or hidden, by a mesh alpha layer. Then let's say if you cam down into her cleavage (not that I ever do that), you see right through her. That's just wrong on so many levels (yes, even more wrong that camming down her cleavage). Rigged mesh is great for creating a whole new avatar. I recently saw an Asgard avatar from the TV show Stargate SG1. It was awesome! Perfectly done. Mesh is great for that. Fortunately, Asgards do not wear clothes or it would have looked silly with poofed out pants on.

But don't take my word for it. Please check out this article at: http://hummmagazine.wordpress.com/2012/12/30/the-emperors-new-mesh/ To all of my mesh hair and clothing loving friends and family, I apologize but I know it's not just me. Mesh is just wrong for hair and clothing.